corrente

Atrios already identified "pessimism" as a bullet point on the RNC's anti-Dean blast faxes.

That bullet comes from the Republican dark (or should I say darker) force of Ingraham, Matalin, and North.

Here's a subtler, more seemingly innocuous anti-Dean meme: Dean is a Teflon candidate. From Mark Barabak of the LA Times writes:

When Howard Dean appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press," the reviews were scathing, with most pundits calling the interview earlier this year a disaster. But others saw it differently. Traffic on Dean's Web site soared, and he collected more than $100,000 in the next 24 hours.

When Dean suggested America was no safer with Saddam Hussein in custody, rivals in the Democratic presidential contest seized on his comments as a major gaffe. But days later, more than 30 New Jersey lawmakers — joined by Gov. James E. McGreevey — elbowed onto a packed stage to endorse him.

The former Vermont governor has millions in the bank, more than any Democrat running, and a legion of followers, linked by the Internet, who crowd campaign events from Manchester, N.H., to Yuma, Ariz.

But there is one advantage that has proved even more valuable for the impulsive and irrepressible Dean: a Teflon coating.

Sweet Jeebus! Does it never occur to any of these pundits that voters:

• Like what Dean says


• Like the way that he says it


• and are backing their opinions with bucks?

It's the DGB factor... The SCLM just can't account for it...